The Artemis Institute
by Arnarkusaga
Summary: Begins the night Eleven closes the gate and describes the events that unfold afterwards, including a shadowy resistance movement looking for recruits. Involves most of the main characters, but there will be Mileven and Lumax moments sprinkled in.
1. Compromises

After Hopper and Eleven returned to the Byer's home on the night the gate was closed and Will was set free, it had taken nearly three hours for her to wake up from the depleted coma into which she had fallen. Her face was drained of color and there were dark circles under her eyes. Her lips were pale and dry and she was cold to the touch. She and Will, who had also passed out from exhaustion, were laid together side by side on a pallet made from fluffy quilts and just about every pillow the Byer's owned.

Mike hovered and waited and worried while Mrs. Byers and Hopper tended to them both, wiping the blood from Eleven's face and ears and sponging Will's overheated brow. Will was eventually placed in a cooling bath and put to bed, leaving Eleven to rest on the cloud of blankets and pillows. When she finally came around, the tension in the house finally dissipated. Mike hugged her tight, heedless of who was watching, though by then most of the others had left.

Steve had offered to drive Dustin, Max, and Lucas back home, and considering what time it was, not a moment too soon. They were all likely in deep shit. Nancy had stayed with Mike, refusing to let him out of her sight.

Once she was rested enough to get up and move around, Hopper gave Mike a few minutes alone with Eleven on the front porch, although still within his sight through the window. Mike held her hand and told her all the things he'd wanted to say during the year she'd been missing, complimenting her new look and hair, and rambling happy nonsense at her.

Eleven just listened and smiled for most of it, though toward the end she apologized for never answering when he tried to reach her. He told her it didn't matter anymore. That was the truth. All he wanted was some sign that she was okay. Now that he had that, nothing else was important. All the anger that had weighed on him for the past year had evaporated.

Well, most of it. Mike had been hoping that now El was back officially, that he'd be able to see her more, but Hopper had crushed that hope pretty heartlessly. Eleven was still unsafe. People were still looking for her. Before going their separate ways, Hopper had told Mike that he'd have to be patient. At the time Mike accepted it with a scowl of contempt, but Mike knew what "be patient" meant. It was code for _it'll probably never happen, but I'm going to let you twist in the wind to keep you quiet_.

It didn't matter. Hopper wasn't the boss of him. He'd see El soon and there wasn't anything the Chief could do to stop him.

* * *

In the months that had followed the closing of the gate, many compromises had been reached. Hopper had told Eleven of the certificate that he had been given by Owens and what it meant: legally, she was now his daughter. They would have to concoct a story that would be believable before she could be permitted to interact with anyone outside of the people who knew of her. It also meant another year of isolation.

This time, however, there were some concessions. Since the cabin was only about an hour's walk from Hopper's trailer beside the lake, she was allowed to go to and from it as she wished. This gave her some fresh air and time outside, something she had been desperate for last year. When the year was up, he would begin introducing her around town in subtle ways, like taking her on quick trips to the store, having her tag along when he stopped into work on an off day, having her run errands with him. Slowly get people used to seeing her. People would talk at first; they always do, but eventually it would be normal to see her out and about, and people would move on to newer gossip.

For Eleven's part, she would refrain from using her abilities unless absolutely necessary. No more opening locks with her mind, no more psychic tantrums, no more changing channels without touching the TV. And absolutely no channeling people through the TV or radio or anything else.

Eleven objected strongly to this at first. The idea of not being able to see or talk to Mike, or any of her friends, for another entire year was unthinkable. But that was when Hopper offered up his best bargaining chip: the trailer had a working phone.

He couldn't be sure that all those shadowy government types weren't still listening to their conversations, but he had taken the place apart a second time looking for bugs and wiretaps. The military presence had left Hawkins, but that didn't mean they were done with the town, especially if they still had a vested interest in Eleven. He was hoping all that has transpired in the past two years, specifically the immense loss of life and billions of dollars they'd lost in research and settlements paid out to the victims families, was enough of a deterrent to keep them at bay.

Eleven was overjoyed and gladly accepted the deal. She'd have accepted even if it meant swearing off her favorite food for the rest of her life. Not only would she still be able to hear Mike's voice, but now she'd be able to answer him. It's what she had wanted all year. For this, she could be patient. For Mike, she could wait.

* * *

Two weeks had gone by since the incident at the lab. Will had been absent from school since getting rid of the Mind Flayer's virus, having been weakened to near death by the removal process. Dustin, Lucas, and Mike had all taken turns riding out to give Will his make up work before being sealed up in their own houses. While their parents didn't know they were directly involved, they did know that the military installation on the edge of town had been "shut down" due to a massive security breach during a time when their children hadn't been home, and it had made them all a bit paranoid.

If it wasn't infuriating, they might have laughed at the irony. Despite their parents not having any idea they had even been to the facility, they still managed to get grounded because of it.

Mike sat alone in the basement of his house, starting on the history paper that had come due two days ago, when the phone rang. He didn't pay attention to it; it was likely for Nancy. It was usually for Nancy. His pencil has been poised over the empty page for nearly 30 seconds when he heard his mom at the top of the stairs.

"Mike! Phone for you!" She called.

" _Who is it?!_ " He called back.

"I don't know," She said loudly in a sing-songy type of voice. "But it's a _girl_."

That made Mike's head snap back and his brow furrow. Why was Max calling him? She was literally the only girl at school who spoke to him. He didn't even know she had his number. Lucas probably gave it to her.

He sighed and stomped up the stairs to the kitchen, finding his mother standing by the island with one hand on her hip and the other holding out the phone, her eyebrow cocked and a smug smirk on her face.

Mike made a face of his own, and it wasn't nearly so pleasant. "God, Mom, for once in your life, be cool," Mike said flatly.

"Hey, I'm cool," She said, tossing him the cordless and walking off.

Mike rolled his eyes and steeled himself for a moment before raising the phone to his ear.

"Hello?" He said curtly, aggravation seeping into his voice.

There was silence over the line, but he could hear someone breathing.

"Hello?" He said again, more brusquely. "Look, I've got homework to do, so either say something or stop wasting my time."

As he was about to hang up the phone, on the other end came a voice that nearly whispered, softly and cautiously, " _Mike?_ "

All the short hairs on his body stood on end and the breath was sucked out of his chest, as though he'd been electrified.

" _El?_ "

Nancy, who had been doing her trig homework at the dining table, looked up in surprise. Frowning, Mike dodged her gaze and flew back down the stairs to the basement for some privacy.

"El, is that you?" Mike asked.

" _Yes,_ " Eleven replied. " _Sorry._ " She said mournfully.

"What? Why are you sorry?"

" _You sound mad._ "

"Oh. I'm not mad at you," He said, disconcerted.

" _Oh._ "

There was a moment of rather awkward silence.

"It's nice to hear your voice," He said, attempting to sound more light and casual. "How'd you get away this, anyway? You break into someone's house or something?"

She breathed a short laugh. " _Hopper let me,_ " She replied. " _But I don't have long. Five minutes a week, he said_."

" _ _Five minutes__ , that's garbage," Mike said emphatically. "That's not enough time for anything."

Eleven fell silent. Mike was worried she thought him angry at her again, so he changed the subject. "What did you do today?"

" _Walked in the woods,_ " She said. _"It was nice out today, not too cold. Hopper only just let me start going on walks. To the lake and back. What did you do today?_ "

"School," He replied. "Our parents have us all on lockdown until the mess with the lab is cleaned up. We can't even go to each others' houses. Like, Lucas is right next door, and I can't even go over there. I have to use the supercomm just to ask him a question about homework. It's bullshit." He flopped down on the couch and ruffled his hair in frustration. Then immediately felt guilty. "I shouldn't be complaining, it's not as bad as being stuck in a cabin by yourself for a year."

" _It wasn't so bad,_ " Eleven said. "I had TV and books, and I could hear your voice every day. That made it better."

Mike smiled softly. "I wasn't even sure you were still alive. I thought I saw you that night after you disappeared at school, but I wasn't sure. It seemed important to keep trying to find you. There were even times I thought I could feel you, like if I reached out, I could touch you. Like you were right there, and I just couldn't see you. I thought I was going crazy, so I didn't tell anyone I was doing it. I didn't want them to think I was nuts." He paused. "It was you I saw outside of the window, wasn't it?"

" _Yes,_ " Eleven said. " _But I didn't want to put you or your family in danger, so I ran._ "

"Where did you go?" Mike asked. "Were you already staying with the Chief?"

" _No,_ " Eleven said. " _I lived in the woods for a while._ "

Mike frowned. "You lived in the woods? In the middle of winter?" His heart dropped, thinking of her out in the freezing snow alone, wearing only a dress and a thin button-up shirt to keep her warm. "Where did you sleep, what did you eat?"

" _Rabbits and squirrels, mostly,_ " She said. " _And there was a dead hollow tree I'd sleep in. It kept the snow out._ "

She said this casually, as though making conversation, but the thought of it made him feel sick. Cold fingers of shame crept up his spine. "Oh, god, El, I'm so sorry."

" _Why?_ "

"I should have gone to look for you. I should have helped you. I knew it was you when I saw you at the window, I should have sacked up and gone to find you."

" _'Sacked up'?_ " She repeated slowly.

"I shouldn't have left you out there to freeze," Mike replied, angry now at himself.

" _It's not your fault,_ " She said softly. " _I wasn't out there long. Hopper found me eventually. I think he figured out I wasn't dead, because he started leaving food in a box on the hiking trail. After the third time, I waited for him to come back. And then… then he took me home._ "

"You mean the cabin?" Mike asked.

" _Yes,_ " She replied. " _There was only one bedroom, but he let me have it. He slept on the floor until we got a couch. Now he sleeps on that._ "

"That's nice of him," Mike said with only a slight trace of sarcasm. It actually was pretty nice of the chief to give her the only room.

She took a breath to say something, but Mike heard a sound like someone knocking on a door.

" _Time's up,_ " El said sadly.

"You'll call again, won't you?" Mike asked.

" _Yes,_ " She said. " _Every week. Five minutes. I promise._ "

"Okay," Mike said. "Goodbye El. Talk to you soon."

" _You too. Bye Mike._ " There was a click and then a dial tone.

Mike gripped the phone in his hands and slowly slouched backwards onto the sofa, his eyes squeezed together in elation. The relief he felt was like floating. He wouldn't have to wait another year. He'd get to hear her voice every week. Maybe if he was lucky and didn't screw up, he could go out to the cabin to see her, if the Chief permitted.

Opening his eyes, he saw his homework lying on the table in front of him. He tossed the phone aside and picked up the books, applying all his energy to the task. Now was not the time to screw around. He had a goal, something to focus on. Time to get to work.

* * *

Eleven opened the trailer door to find Hopper sitting on the bottom step, lighting a cigarette.

"Good talk?" He mumbled around the cigarette.

Eleven nodded, closing the door behind her. "I thought he was mad at me, but he wasn't."

"Why'd you think he was mad?"

"He sounded mad when he answered."

"Ah. Mighta' had a bad day. Happens."

"Yeah," Eleven replied.

Hopper heaved a sigh and looked off into the distance. "So, you know the deal, yeah?" Hopper said, exhaling smoke through his nostrils. "This is a reward for the gate. For helpin' the kid and settin' things right. But it's also a risk. You know that."

"I know," she said quietly.

"So you're gonna be good, then, maybe?" He asked her, glancing at her sideways with a shrewd expression. "No more wanderin' off, no more skippin' town, no more takin' big risks, no more bein' stupid. Because this," He motioned at the trailer. "This can go away. I don't want to do that to ya, kid, but if you suddenly decide to go rogue on me like you did a few weeks ago, I won't really have much choice, will I? There're only so many risks a person can get away with." Hopper flicked the cigarette for emphasis.

Eleven didn't answer. Hopper still didn't know about Chicago and she wasn't sure she should ever tell him. He had had a hard enough time trying to wrap his brain around the fact that she had hitchhiked with a truck driver, and that had only been three towns over.

"You hearin' me, kid?" Hopper asked.

"I'm hearing you," She replied. "No more being stupid."

"Okay," He said.

"Okay."

They both fell silent for a while and watched the sun set over the water. It wasn't awkward and neither of them were in any hurry to be anywhere else. Despite the chilly evening, the breeze coming off the lake was warm. The insects buzzed a song that perfectly harmonized with the rustling of the dead leaves littering the ground as the wind tossed them here and there. Eleven rested her head against Hopper's arm and sighed.

It was after dark when Eleven's growling stomach prompted them to head back to the cabin. As Hopper started the truck and Eleven fastened her seatbelt, he cast another sideways glance at her, determining that some risks were definitely worth the reward.

He flicked on his headlights and turned the wheel toward home.

* * *

Time passed.

Eleven was obedient to a fault. She was able to call Mike every week, but on different nights and times, so it wouldn't be predictable. The week of the Snow Ball, Hopper had enlisted Joyce's help in purchasing clothes and accessories for the dance, and Joyce showed Eleven how to style her hair and put on the makeup. Hopper learned that Will was back at school and seemed to be doing well. No more episodes.

Things were quieting down, becoming calmer. Eleven seemed happy, or rather, happier than she had been the previous year. She still felt isolated and hated hiding, but "soon" finally had a date attached to it, and that was good enough.

Maybe this would work out after all.

One night, Hopper was woken from a dead sleep to a frantic call over his police radio.

" _Hopper! Hopper, I need you to answer right now!_ "

Hopper grunted in his sleep and rolled over. The door to Eleven's room opened and she peered out, bleary-eyed and her hair ruffled.

" _Hopper, I'm serious, we got an emergency at Hawkin's Lab. Pick up, dammit!_ "

Hopper jolted awake and to his feet. Eleven's big, wide eyes met his as he stumbled for his radio.

"Yeah, this is the Chief, what's going on at the lab? Did it walk off or something?"

" _Or something, Chief. The whole damn thing is on fire._ "


	2. The Lab in Flames

Hopper hurriedly threw on his tan police shirt, not even bothering to button it, and shouldered on his coat, rushing around in a scramble to find his badge and gun.

"What's happening?" Eleven asked fearfully.

"Go back to bed," Hopper said as he threaded his belt through the loops in his trousers, the rim of his hat in his mouth.

"But it's–"

"Go _back_ to _bed_!" Hopper said more loudly, pointing his finger into her room. Her face pinched in annoyance and she shut her door rather hard, flopping down on the bed and folding her arms.

She could hear him clattering around, preparing to go quickly. She heard him shout through the door, "Lock up when I leave!" then open the front door and slam it behind him. The roar of his truck's engine shook the cabin a little. She waited until she couldn't hear the rumbling of the vehicle anymore before opening her door again.

Nervously, she switched on the lamp on the side table and paced the around the couch with her thumbnail in her mouth. It wasn't just that Hopper got called in in the middle of the night, which never happened, but it was the lab. _Her lab._ She needed to know what was happening.

Hopper had a bad habit of omitting details he didn't think she needed to know. She knew him well enough by now that he wouldn't tell her the entire truth of what he had found, if he told her about it at all, if he thought it was for her own good.

But she _did_ need to know, no matter Hopper thought. This wasn't his decision to make.

She knew it was only twenty minutes to Will Byers' house from the cabin if she ran most of the way. He could use his supercomm to contact Mike, Dustin, and Lucas. They'd want to know what was happening, too. Especially Will. Eleven was sure, if the officer was right and the lab was on fire, Will would be more than happy to see the place burn.

She looked at the clock on the wall. 1:18 in the morning. The last time there had been a fire in town, it had taken Hopper all day and well into the night to deal with it, so she might have plenty of time.

She dressed quickly and grabbed her thickest coat, a scarf, and a red wool beanie, as it was February and snowing outside. Moving quickly, she packed her bag with anything she thought she might need and headed for the door, reaching for the handle.

Then hesitated before touching it. She had just earned herself something resembling freedom. Was she really willing to risk that, that one phone call a week, those daily walks to the lake, just to go watch the lab burn in the middle of the night?

She took a breath and squeezed her eyes shut. She had to know. Opening her eyes, she twisted the handle and stepped out into the brisk, biting wind.

* * *

A clattering and a muffled voice woke Will from a dead sleep. He sat up straight in bed, his heart pounding.

"Will, it's okay!" he heard the soft voice say. He saw a figure approach him rapidly on tip-toe. "It's okay, it's me!"

"Me who?" He said, reaching for the lamp on his bedside table. The light shown upon a boy in overalls and a red beanie. Wait, not a boy..

" _Eleven?_ " He exclaimed.

"Shh…" She said, holding a finger to her lips. "Yes. Sorry."

"What are you doing here in the middle of the night?" Will asked in a hushed tone. "Aren't you in hiding?"

"Yes, but something has happened," She said. "We have to get the others. Can you call them with your radio?"

"I'm a little out of range, but sure," Will said, reaching for it. "Dustin is really the only one who's close enough for me to reach. What's going on?"

"The lab is burning," Eleven said seriously.

Will's breathing stuttered for a second. His hands shook. The shadow of a flashback clouded his eyes and for a moment, he was very far away. She'd seen that look in her own eyes in the mirror before and was more than familiar with it's hold over a person.

"I know," She said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay. I can call them, if you want me to."

"No, I got it," He raised the comm to his mouth and called for Dustin. It took more than five minutes to raise him. He was a very heavy sleeper.

" _Oh. My. God. WHAT?!_ " The crackle of Dustin's sleepy, irritated voice returned over the speaker of the radio.

"I'm calling the party to order," Will said. Eleven's face scrunched, puzzled. "Emergency council. I need you to call Lucas and have him pass it the order down to Mike."

" _It's 2 o'clock in the morning, man, what could be so freaking important?_ "

"Eleven is here," Will said. "She said the lab is burning down."

There was a full ten seconds of silence over the air. Then… " _I'm sorry, could you repeat that, please?_ " He now sounded much more alert.

"You heard me, man, just do it," he said, then Eleven reached for the radio. Will handed it over.

"Dustin," she said.

" _Son of a bitch, Eleven, is that you?_ " Dustin said, a little too loudly. Will's face pulled into a slightly panicked grimace and they looked toward his open bedroom door, looking for signs of his brother or mom. After seeing and hearing nothing, Eleven continued.

"Yes, it's me," She said quietly. "Hopper got called away. They said the lab is on fire. I heard it on his police radio."

" _Holy shit,_ " Dustin said. " _Are you serious?_ "

Will took back the supercomm and said, "Are you going to execute the order or not?"

" _Yeah, yeah, gimme a sec,_ " Dustin said, and then there was silence over the radio.

Will pulled the covers off of his legs and picked up a pair of jeans and a shirt off the ground. He suddenly seemed to remember El was there. "I'm gonna get dressed," He told her awkwardly.

She nodded and stepped out of the door to his room, which he shut with a sharp snap. Feeling self-conscious alone in a strange house, she decided to wait outside.

Eleven waited at the edge of the driveway while Will got dressed. After a few moments, Will joined her with his bike, looking over his shoulder at his house to make sure his mom and brother didn't see him.

"Hey," He said

"Hi," She replied.

"They've confirmed," Will said. "Lucas and Mike. They're all coming."

"Good," Eleven said, feeling a little giddy.

It was a little odd, just the two of them standing there in the cold under the ghostly light of the streetlamp. Despite saving his life a couple of times, Eleven had never been formally introduced to Will. Even at the Ball, there had been so much going on that they hadn't spoken much to each other. That, and she'd been so focused on Mike that she kind of didn't pay attention to anything else.

"So, I never said thanks," Will said suddenly.

She turned to look at him. "For what?"

"For finding me in that place," He said. He was looking straight at her though his gaze was a bit distant. "In the Upside-Down. For sending my mom and the Chief in after me. I mean, I don't really remember much about it, but they told me after I got back." He looked off down the road, scanning the horizon for the boys. "And for closing the gate. That was pretty badass."

"Thanks," Eleven said.

"I get why Mike likes you so much," Will said with a smirk. Eleven looked at him in surprise. "He's never said it out loud, but it's pretty obvious. He talks about you all the time, like you're an angel or something."

"Angel?" Eleven said in confusion.

"Yeah, it's like… they have wings and they protect people. They're pretty and magical and they can do anything. My mom used to tell me when I was a little kid that everyone has a guardian angel that watches over them and looks after them when things get bad. Maybe you're Mike's guardian angel." He shrugged. "Maybe you're all of ours."

Eleven was pretty taken aback by that. "I don't have wings," Eleven said.

Will laughed. "No," He said. "But you are magic. And we'd all be dead if it weren't for you." He smiled at her kindly.

Eleven's mouth opened and closed without any sound coming out. She had no idea how to respond to that. Thankfully, she was saved from comment by the flashing of three single headlights shining from the handlebars of Dustin's, Lucas's, and Mike's bicycles headed their way, with Max riding behind Lucas.

Eleven perked up when she saw Mike flying down the road. As soon as he saw her, he smiled ear to ear. Her heart lifted.

As they approached, Mike jumped off his bike and let it fall to the ground, embracing her immediately. She returned it happily. He was always so warm.

"That's enough, lovebirds," Dustin said. "It's gonna take-" He checked his watch. "-thirty-seven minutes to get to the lab, and that's pedaling at top speed. So if we want to check out what's going on, we need to get going."

"Dustin's right," Lucas agreed. "If anyone finds out we're not home, we're all in deep shit."

Mike picked his bike back up off the ground and patted the seat. "Ready?" He asked Eleven.

She smiled and climbed onto the back of his bike, and felt the familiar weight of his back resting against her. Hugging his waist, she rested her chin on his shoulder.

They turned for the road and pedaled hard, gaining speed, heading for Hawkins Lab.

* * *

At the edge of the hill that the lab lay beyond, the party ditched their bikes and trekked upward toward the crest of the hill. There was definitely a bright orange-red light coming from the horizon line above.

At the top, there it was, about a half a mile in front of them but easily visible from this height: the entire cross-shaped building was up in flames. Every floor, every corner, every square inch was burning. The fire was so intense that they could feel the heat up on the hill.

Down below, at the open gate, there was a small army of police vehicles, fire engines, and even an ambulance. Eleven had no doubt that Hopper was down there; she could see his tiny, beige truck parked alongside all of the emergency vehicles, though she couldn't tell which he was. All the people were just specks.

The fire engines were pouring water onto the building, but it didn't seem to have any effect whatsoever. The lab appeared determined to burn.

"This is unreal," Lucas said.

"How do you think it happened?" Mike asked.

"It's gotta be arson," Dustin said, looking through Lucas's binoculars.

"Why does it 'gotta be arson'?" Lucas said, scoffing. "Since when are you an expert?"

"Books are a thing that exists, Lucas. I mean, look at it. It's not isolated to one part of the building, it's literally everywhere. It's probably in the basement levels, too."

"Why does that matter?" Max asked.

"Because fire naturally moves up, not down," Dustin replied. "If it's in the lower levels, where there is limited space and oxygen, not to mention about a hundred locked doors to get through, it means it took some kind of coordinated plan or at least a massive amount of accelerant to light this place up. Someone really wanted this place to burn."

They all slowly looked at Eleven.

She stared back indignantly. "Wasn't me!"

They all actually looked slightly disappointed to hear that.

"By morning," Dustin said. "At the rate the fire is burning, that place'll be nothing but a smoking hole in the ground."

As if to emphasis Dustin's point, the west arm of the building fell inward and disappeared entirely, as though swallowed up by a deep, hungry pit.

"That's crazy," Mike breathed.

"Does this mean it's actually over?" Will asked shakily. "That the gate won't come back ever? The military people will leave Hawkins alone?"

"I don't know," Dustin said. "They'll probably send some guys to investigate the fire, since it's government property and everything." He looked down the line of them crouched on the ground at Eleven. "You might want to lay low for a while."

Mike made a strained face and Eleven sighed wryly. "I don't think I can lay much lower," She replied flatly.

"I hope they don't rebuild it," Will said.

"I doubt they will," Lucas replied. "They haven't been back since it was shut down last December."

"That's we know of," Max said. "My stepdad used to be military, he says that they don't ever just abandon something that's valuable to them. They always leave someone watching."

Will and Eleven shared a look of apprehension.

For a few minutes, they watched in silence as the fire engines threw water on what remained of the building uselessly.

"We shouldn't stay much longer," Max said. "If my mom or stepdad find out I'm not home, I'll totally get murdered."

"She's right," Will said. "My mom will literally go nuclear if she wakes up and I'm not there."

"Fine," Mike said, standing. They all followed suit and began marching slowly back down the hill toward the bikes.

They hit the main road about six minutes later, after which Lucas broke off to deliver Max to her home, promising to call the others tomorrow with theories about what they had seen. Another ten minutes, and Dustin split off, leaving just Mike, Eleven, and Will pedaling back to the Byers' home.

At the street light, they stopped and dismounted.

"I can't believe it's actually gone," Will said.

"I know, it's nuts," Mike Agreed.

Eleven was silent.

"You okay, El?" Will asked. "You lived there your whole life. Is it… are you sad it's gone, in a way?"

Eleven thought about it. She knew she had lived there her entire life, but she couldn't actually remember much before the testing began when she was ten. What she could remember were flashbacks she had gleaned from the minds of others and not her own memories. She wasn't sure why her memory was missing, but she was sure it was probably best left forgotten.

Any memory she did have from her time in the lab were... unpleasant. No, that was an insubstantial way of describing it. Terrifying was more accurate. Painful. Harrowing. There weren't enough negative adjectives.

"No," she said firmly. "I'm not sad. It's good it's gone."

Will nodded, but his eyes were hollow. "I'm still afraid they'll come back," he said. "That they'll try to open the gate again. He'll be after me. He'll be angry that I failed him. I can't do it again." Will's voice shook violently and he began to breathe hard.

Both Mike and Eleven reached out to Will, taking a shoulder each.

"Don't worry, buddy," Mike said. "we're not gonna let him get you this time."

"Yes," Eleven said gently. "We'll protect you, Will. Guardian angel, remember?"

Mike squinted in confusion, but the side of Will's mouth quirked up. He took a big, shaky breath and nodded.

"Yeah," Will said. "Guardian angel."

"You better get in," Mike said. "Your mom would tear a rip in time and space with her teeth if she thinks you've gone missing again."

"You're not kidding," Will said with a laugh. "Bye, guys." He waved at them as he headed toward his house.

"You should head home, too," Eleven said to Mike.

"What? No, I'm going to walk you home. I want to make sure you get there okay."

"You don't have to do that," Eleven said.

Mike shrugged. "I want to." He picked up his bike again. "Let's go. We should get you back before Hopper gets home or he'll lose his goddamn mind."

She climbed on behind him and he took of back on the main road. They were moving a bit too fast for speech, so she simply rode in silence and enjoyed Mike's company.

Mike angled his bike toward the dirt road leading to the cabin and continued for another ten minutes before the road dead ended and they were forced to abandon the bike for walking. Without speaking or looking at each other, they clasped hands and helped each other over the stumps and fallen branches.

"I'm really happy to see you," Mike said. "I wish it were for a different reason, though."

"What kind of reason?" She asked him.

"Literally anything," He said. "It would be nice if we could just hang out, like we used to. Maybe one day you could come to the arcade, or we could go to a movie, or you could sit in on a campaign."

"Campaign?" Eleven echoed as she waited for him to vault over a dead tree and then placed her hands on his shoulders to slip down herself.

"Yeah, Dungeons and Dragons. It's a tabletop game that me, Will, Lucas, and Dustin play. It's a lot a fun. We'll have to make you a character sheet."

"I don't understand," Eleven said.

"It's okay. I can explain it to you later." They stopped in front of the cabin and stared at it, still holding hands. Hopper's truck was still gone and the light from the lamp she had turned on was still shining around the curtains.

Mike sighed heavily.

"What's wrong?" Eleven asked.

"Dustin's right," He said in a resigned voice. "About laying low. You know what that means, don't you?"

Eleven's heart sank all the way to her shoes. "No more phone calls."

Mike shook his head and faced her, looking dejected. "Not for a while, at least. It's too risky if those bad government guys are coming back. The most important things is for you to stay safe. We can't risk them knowing your here, and I don't want to be the one that leads them to you."

She smiled softly at him and his sad face. "I understand. I hate it, but I understand." She took off the red beanie she wore and planted it firmly on his head. "You should wear a hat when you go out, it's cold." She said, echoing Hopper when he'd first given it to her.

He straightened it and cocked his head, smiling, looking at her hair. "It's all curly," He said as he plucked a curl and let it spring back down in a bounce, and then ruffled it to shake the snow out of it.

She put her hand to her head self-consciously, but he pulled it gently away. "No, it's cute. I like it."

They smiled at each other, left with nothing to say. They walked toward the cabin and stopped at the front step, which Eleven stepped up on and turned to face Mike so that they were at eye level. She took his face in her hands, leaned forward, and kissed him. It was different from the previous ones; it wasn't a quick, nervous peck. It was confident, sweet, and lingering. She no longer felt the cold or the snow falling onto her face.

They parted, and Mike said, "This is only temporary, El, I promise. I'll see you again soon. No matter what. But I need you safe. Be safe, okay?"

She nodded. "Okay."

Reluctantly, he took a step back, still looking at her. "Bye, El."

"Bye, Mike."

She stayed on the front step as he turned and jogged back to the dirt road to collect his bike. She didn't go inside until he was no longer in her sight. Then she went back in, locked the doors, turned off the light, and went back to bed. If Hopper returned, she never heard him.

As the sun rose, she dreamed of fire.


	3. Invitations

Hopper didn't return until evening that day. He had sent a coded message through the radio that he'd be home early, having been up since he had first been called out to the fire. Eleven heated up their meals and set them out just as he knocked on the door. Remembering her promise not to use her abilities unless necessary, she went to unlock the doors manually.

Hopper stomped in, sighing in exhaustion. He was visibly drained, and collapsed into his chair at the table without removing his coat or hat. For a few moments, he sat motionless with his eyes closed.

"Are you okay?" She asked, concerned.

He folded his arms and pinched the bridge of his nose, knocking his hat off in the process. "Yeah, just tired."

"What happened?" Eleven asked carefully.

Hopper sat forward and opened his bloodshot eyes. "Well, you don't have to worry about being taken back to the lab anymore."

Eleven had never been good at lying, and if Hopper knew she had seen the lab burning for herself, he might be rather angry, so she simply said, "No?"

"No, it's gone," Hopper said wearily. "It's toast. It's just ashes and a parking lot now."

Eleven took a long breath and let it out slowly. "That's good, isn't it?"

"Yes and no," Hopper said heavily. "Them government boys are back in town. I've been dealing with them all day. They've been taking samples, interviewing people. They think someone from town burned it down. They even suspect me of doing it."

That genuinely surprised her. "You?"

He puffed a laugh out of his chest. "I've had thoughts, trust me. But they're not going to be happy until they find whoever they think is responsible, which means they may be here awhile. Which brings me to do something I don't want to do."

He knitted his fingers together and looked at her hard but not unsympathetically. "I hate to do this to you, I really do, but until the suits leave town, you've got to stay put. No phone calls, no walks in the woods. The original rules are back in effect; don't go outside, don't open the door, keep the curtains closed. It's not going to be forever, I promise, I just-"

"Okay," Eleven said simply.

Hopper's head rocked back and his hands spread in an _I'm sorry, what_ gesture. "'Okay?' That's it? You're not going to fight me on this?"

"No," Eleven said. "You're right. It's not safe."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're really okay with this?"

She nodded, attempting to make her eyes big and innocent looking.

"You're sure?"

She nodded. "You said it's not forever."

"Yeah, it's not, but..." He leaned back in his chair. "Hell, kid, I had a whole speech prepared. I was expecting some yelling and tantrums and being mad at me for a month. You made it too easy."

"Do you want me to be mad at you?" Eleven asked, confused.

"No, no, trust me, it's a nice change of pace," He said, laughing. "Compliant Eleven is a lot easier to handle." He pulled the tin off of his T.V. dinner and indicated she should do the same. "But… hopefully, Spitfire Eleven is still knockin' around in there, too."

"I don't understand."

He chuckled. "Don't worry about it. I'll find a way to make this up to you, kid."

Eleven looked at him sitting there, hounded, exhausted, and apologetic, and felt guilty. She smiled sadly at him.

"It's okay. Really. It's not your fault," She said.

He returned her smile. "Thanks for makin' dinner," He said.

She smiled, genuinely this time, and they ate.

After dinner, Hopper sat with her to watch a movie, like they always did in the evenings, though he fell asleep less than ten minutes in. She covered him in a blanket and finished the movie with her head on his arm, then cleaned up and put herself to bed. It was also part of their nightly ritual for Hopper to read a chapter or two from a book of her choosing, but Eleven was satisfied to read herself to sleep this time.

* * *

The investigators stayed through February, March, and to the end of April. Any welcome they might have had was worn out in a few weeks, but they stubbornly refused to leave until they found the party they believed could have been responsible for the fire.

They interrogated just about every person in Hawkins, including the most of the children and the elderly people in the nursing home on the outskirts of town. But there was nothing to find. After irritating everyone to no effect, they finally decided it must have been a massive electrical malfunction and ruled the fire accidental. There had been much rejoicing in the town once they finally left. A few people threw parties.

The last month of school was upon the party, and they couldn't not be happier about it. They enjoyed some aspects of the institution, but there were parts that left a lot to be desired.

At the beginning of the month, Mr. Clarke had an interesting announcement for the class.

"Good morning, students," Mr. Clarke said enthusiastically as the children took their seats. "I have some exciting news. A very prestigious academy has taken interest in our little town and is offering a tour of their campus to a select few students who pass the aptitude test."

There was a collective groan from the class. Mr. Clarke waved his hands in placation as he began to divide envelopes between the front row of desks, who then took a test and passed the stacks backward.

Dustin, sitting in the front row, examined the front of the white envelope. There was a large blue emblem square in the middle of an capital A upheld by the outline of a crescent moon, only the A cleverly took the form of a bow and arrow.

"What academy?" Dustin asked.

Mr. Clarke held up a large pamphlet with an artistic blue font spelling out the words _The Artemis Institute_. The _A_ in _Artemis_ had the same bow and arrow design as the test envelopes.

"The Artemis Institute of Advanced Sciences. They seek out kids who have a keen interest and proficiency in science of all types. They're offering a limited summer program to the best and brightest that Hawkins has to offer."

"They're barking up the wrong tree, then," Dustin heard Max mutter from the back row. The boys all turned to frown at her, and she smirked at them.

"The test is one hundred questions long and you will have the remainder of the period to complete it. Take your time, do your best. I'm rooting for all of you." He gave them all a cheery thumbs-up before sitting at his desk, observing them closely for cheaters.

There was a loud rustling of paper as the students opened their envelopes and began the test. Dustin looked at the first few question:

 _Which part of the brain is responsible for hearing and language?_

 _What is the name of the most recent supercontinent?_

 _According to the second law of thermodynamics, what prevents heat energy from becoming converted into useful work?_

"What the _shit_?" Dustin whispered to himself, looking at the others. They had the same look of panic on their faces.

"It's not even multiple choice," Lucas whispered.

"Just do your best," Will hissed at them. "It's not even for a grade; it's just for some dumb school we've never even heard of."

"Will's right, who cares if we fail. Only loser's actually want to go to school in the summer," Mike said in an undertone.

"Boys!" Mr. Clarke said sharply.

"Sorry, Mr. Clarke," They said simultaneously. With a quick glance at each others, they bent their heads and applied themselves to their work.

* * *

"There's no way in hell I passed that test," Dustin said after class had let out. "There were two separate questions talking about the function of gamma rays, and I just wrote 'the Hulk' on both."

The tests had been put back into their envelopes and sealed after the test was over. Not even Mr. Clarke would be able to look at them; they were going to be shipped back to the academy for evaluation by their staff. The results were supposed to return before the end of the school year.

"That wasn't a test for eighth graders. That was some college level shit," Lucas said, walking next to Max. They had second period English together. "They've gotta be looking for certifiable geniuses or something."

"They won't find them in Hawkins," Mike said. "Seriously, in a town this small, do you think we wouldn't know we had a genius in our school? Dustin would be the closest thing, and that's only because his brain is full of useless shit no one cares about."

"Hey, useless information is it's own reward," Dustin said defensively. "My vast knowledge of stupid crap has saved our asses on multiple occasions and don't act like it hasn't."

They stopped at their lockers and stowed their science books. Lucas and Max pulled out English books to replace them, while Dustin grabbed his social studies workbook. Mike and Will had math.

"We probably won't even hear about it again," Will said. "I doubt anyone in this school passed the test. I'd be amazed if even one person was selected."

"We'll see," Max said, jerking her head at Lucas to follow her. They headed to English and Dustin waved as he, too, jogged off to his next class.

"So," Will started awkwardly as they made their way down the halls through the mass of other kids. "Any calls yet?"

From Eleven, he meant. Mike really only talked to Will about it. Dustin and Lucas wouldn't have minded, but they didn't understand it in the same way as Will.

"No, not yet," Mike said, sighing. "I'm hoping soon, but she has to be careful right now. Even with the bad men gone, they might still have spies in town keeping watch. As much as I would like to talk to her, I don't want anything to happen to her."

"I get it," Will said. "Must be tough, though."

"Yeah."

They reached the classroom just as the bell rang.

"Don't worry, Mike," Will said sympathetically. "At least she's safe."

Mike smiled and nodded, then followed Will into math class.

* * *

Two weeks later, and the results had returned. When the party entered Biology, Mr. Clarke was practically levitating in excitement.

"Well, the results are in," Mr. Clarke said. "And only five students from Hawkins Middle were selected for the summer program, and they are all in this class."

There was an intrigued buzzing among the other students. Will couldn't explain why, but he had a sudden sense of foreboding.

Mr. Clarke held up five letter envelops with the institute's emblem on them.

"The first lucky recipient is," Mr. Clarke opened the envelope on the top and scanned the name quickly. "Max Mayfield!"

There was a smattering of applause as Max walked up the aisle to accept the envelope. Lucas smiled brightly at her as she returned to her seat.

"Next," He opened the second envelope. "Mike Wheeler!"

Mike made a confused face as he stood up to receive his envelope. Mike caught Will's eye, and Will's unease deepened.

"The next is Lucas Sinclair!"

Lucas stood up and took his envelope. He wasn't smiling. As he turned away from Mr. Clarke, he frowned at the others.

"Dustin Henderson!"

Dustin smiled nervously as Mr. Clarke laid the envelope on his desk.

"And finally," Mr. Clarke said with a flourish. "Will Byers!"

Will didn't move. The class all turned to look at him. He shifted self-consciously in his seat.

"Will, go on," Dustin whispered.

Will stood and slowly walked up to take the envelope. Mr. Clarke smiled.

"Congratulations, Will," He said cheerfully. "This is a wonderful opportunity."

"Y-yes," Will stammered. "Thank you." He turned mechanically and returned to his seat.

The party was silent and on edge for the rest of the class, waiting impatiently for the bell to ring. When it finally did, they sprinted for the door and out into the hall.

"There's no way we passed those tests," Max said. "I didn't know ninety percent of the questions, so I just didn't answer them. Most of my test was blank."

"It was rigged," Lucas said. "There's a reason only us five 'passed' out of the entire school. What one thing we all have in common?"

"We know about Hawkins Lab," Will said quietly.

"And Eleven," Mike said.

"Shit," Dustin said. "It's a trap."

"What do we do?" Max said.

Mike opened his envelope and read. " _'Congratulations on winning a coveted spot in our summer educational program. You are among the select few-_ blah blah blah," Mike said sarcastically, scanning the letter. " _You and your peers will meet a representative of the Institute on June 13, accompanied by two parent chaperones.'_ " Mike's face pinched. "What does that mean? Whose parent? Do we pick which parent goes or what?"

"No," Will said, examining his own envelope. "My mom has been appointed as one of the chaperones. It says so in my letter."

"Does it say who the second chaperone is?" Max asked.

He shook his head. "No, there's just a letter, a permissions slip, and a form in here I'm supposed to give to my mom to fill out. She's supposed to send it in if she accepts."

"It's all weirdly official-looking," Max said, looking at her own letter.

"There's still something really fishy about all of this," Mike said as the bell rang. "We gotta get to class. I'll call you guys later. We should meet up Saturday at the scrapyard. It the safest place I can think of."

Agreeing, the others broke off to their respective classes.

* * *

Later that evening, Mike sat picking at his food at the dinner table, only half listening to the normal dinner prattle between Nancy and their parents. His sharp-eyes mother noticed his distance and said, "What's the matter, Mike? Bad day at school?"

"Not bad," He said. "Just weird."

"Weird, how?" Karen asked.

Mike just shrugged.

"I had a great day," Nancy said, excited. "I won a spot in a summer program for a science institute."

Mike's head shot up.

"Sweetie, that's amazing!" Karen said.

"Yeah, I have a permission slip for you to sign so I can go," Nancy said, looking in her purse for the envelope and not finding it. "It must be in by book bag."

"Does it look like this?" Mike asked, pulling his own envelope.

"Where'd you find my letter?" Nancy said, reaching for it.

Mike snatched it away. "I didn't. It's mine. I won a spot in the program, too."

Nancy's face when rather blank.

"You're kidding!" Karen said in that high-pitched, pleased-mom voice. "Oh, that's so wonderful. Isn't it wonderful, Ted? We've raised such smart children."

"Yeah, it's great," Ted said, feigning enthusiasm. "Good job, Nancy."

Karen sighed in aggravation. "Mike won, too, Ted."

"Oh, that's great, buddy. Good job." Ted didn't even look up from his paper. Mike rolled his eyes.

Karen gave up attempting to engage Ted. "I am so proud of both of you.

"Thanks, mom," Nancy said, and Mike attempted a half-hearted side-smile. They shared a heavily-pointed look, and they continued eating in silence.

After dinner, Mike stopped Nancy as she was heading toward her room.

"Who else in the High school won a spot?"

Nancy shrugged. "There were only three of us, I think. One was Jonathan, but I don't know who the second one was."

"Could it have been Steve?"

" _Steve?_ " Nancy said, laughing. "No, science is definitely not Steve's strong suit."

"Call him," Mike said.

"Mike, why are being so weird?" Nancy asked.

"Be cause the only ones who won in my school was me, Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Will. Three guesses why."

Nancy looked taken aback. She turned on her heel and went into her room with Mike hovering at the door.

Lifting her phone to her ear, she dialed Steve's number. "Hi, Steve. It's Nancy," She said in a stilted, awkward voice. "Yeah, yeah, I know, it's been a while. How are you?"

Mike groaned and rolled his eyes.

Nancy shot him a look and continued. "Look, Steve, the reason I called is, did you win a summer program to a science school?"

The wide-eyed look of shock on Nancy's face was all the answer Mike needed.

This was a setup, plan and simple. This was bad. Very bad. Someone knew they had involvement with the lab and were trying to round them up. Mike felt like panicking. Not much else could make this worst.

* * *

Hopper woke up to the smell of Eleven making eggs and toast on the stove. He had showed her how to use the stove and taught her to make the few things he was capable of cooking. She had taken over the task with enthusiasm. Giving her responsibilities was a good way to distract her from the isolation of the cabin.

"Hey, kiddo," Hopper said, yawning. She smiled at him as she stirred the scrambled eggs around in the pan.

He stumbled to the bathroom and performed his morning ablutions, and emerged tucking his shirt into his pants. Eleven placed two plates on the table and poured milk into their glasses. Her hair was longer now, brushing her shoulders. She had to pin it back now so that it didn't fall into her eyes. He offered to cut it for her, but she said no. She wanted it to grow long.

"I got some good news for you," Hopper said. "The g-men have finally cleared out for good. You can start your walks again."

"And the phone calls?" Eleven said hopefully.

"Phone calls, too," Hopper said, grinning at the bright, wide smile that split Eleven's face. She jumped up to hug him around the neck.

He patted her on the back, and said, "Okay, okay, eat your breakfast."

She sat down, bouncing a bit in excitement, and wolfed down her eggs.

"Whoa, kid, don't choke."

"I want to get going," She said, finishing her toast in two bites. She jumped up and put her glass and plate in the sink, grabbed her socks and shoes and a light sweater.

"It's seven in the morning, kid, Mike's gonna be headed to school," Hopper said, taking a casual bite of his eggs.

"I know, but I want to walk. I miss the lake," She said as she tied her shoes.

He watched her jump around like a flea with an amused smirk on his face. As she finished getting ready and headed for the door, he said "Be back before I get off work. I want you to be here when I get home."

She nodded with a smile, and opened the door, only to stop in her tracks before taking a step out, looking down at the porch right in front of the door. She was no longer smiling.

His grin vanished as well and he stood up. "What's wrong?"

Without answering, she bent down and picked something up.

"What is that?" He asked, taking it from her.

It was a white envelope. On the front was a blue emblem of a capital _A_ artistically fashioned into a bow and arrow, cradled in the outline of a crescent moon.


	4. The Sudden Rise and Abrupt Fall of Billy

The next day after school, which was a Friday, Max rode on the back of Lucas's bike toward her home after a lengthy discussion the party had outside of school about what the letters could actually mean. There were several theories, but the general consensus was that it was… well, bad.

More often than not these days, Max opted to let Lucas give her a ride home rather than ride with Billy. After the night of the Gate, Billy had mostly left her alone, but over time he'd slowly begun returning to his old habits. The day before, he'd gotten angry at Neil, his dad, and broken Max's skateboard in so many pieces that there was no hope of repairing it, regardless of how much duct tape she used. For weeks, he had been making vaguely threatening remarks toward her and her friends when not in earshot of their parents. She had tried her best to ignore it, but she was getting more worried as time went on.

The only one she talked to about Billy was Lucas. Most of the party knew Billy was a dick, but only Lucas really knew what Billy was capable of. She down-played the severity because she didn't want him to worry, but had admitted to Lucas that Billy had hit her before. Lucas had told her to tell someone, the Chief or a teacher at school, but she refused. After all, Neil had been hitting Billy for years and no one had ever helped him.

Lucas came to a stop in front of Max's house and realized that only Billy's car was out front. Neil's truck and Susan's car weren't in the driveway.

"Why don't we go to the arcade?" Lucas said nervously. "Just for an hour. Your parents should be home by then."

Max took a deep breath. "No, no, it's okay. I'll just avoid him." She threw her leg over and off of the back of the bike and gave Lucas a kiss on the cheek. "It's sweet of you to worry," She said, smiling.

He smiled back. "Call me later."

She nodded and turned to go inside.

Opening the front door, she found Billy sitting with his eyes closed in front of a T.V. on static, beer in hand and a lit cigarette in his mouth. She closed the door quietly and tip-toed toward her room, hoping he would just stay that way and leave her alone.

" _Ma-ax…_ " He said in a sing-songy undertone.

She closed her eyes and sighed. "What?" She asked brusquely.

"Now, now, attitude," He said, crushing the beer can and standing. He threw the can aside as he advanced on her. "You're late."

"Why do you care? At least you didn't have to wait on me," She said, trying to escape to her room. He grabbed her by the back of her jacket.

"I'm not done with you yet," He said in a low, menacing voice.

"Leave me alone," She said, not turning.

He snatched her book-bag off of her back and pulled free the invitation that had been sticking out of the front pocket. "What's this?"

"Nothing, give it back." She snatched for it and he held it above her head.

"If it's nothing, why do you care?" He said.

"It's just some dumb summer science program I won a place in," She said, reaching for the envelope. "I probably wasn't even going to go. It's not a big deal."

"Oh, good, then you won't mind if I get rid of it for you." He began ripping it into little pieces.

"No!" She shouted as bits of paper rained to the ground. "No! You don't know what you've done!" She beat as his chest with her fists, screaming in frustration.

She hardly had the strength to hurt him, but the fact that she was fighting back at all was enough to set him off. He flung the remaining paper in her face and grabbed her by the throat, slamming her against the wall.

"You're gonna listen to me, you little bitch," He said, breathing hard through his nostrils. Max pulled fruitlessly at his arm and struggled to break free, but he held her firmly.

"You caught me by surprise last year with the bat and the knock-out juice, I'll give you that, and that earned you a little bit of space. But I'm sick to death of creeping around this house like a ghost while everyone treats you like a primped-up little princess. That stops today."

"Let me go, Billy, or I swear to God…" Max said, her voice shaking as hard as the rest of her.

"What? What are you gonna do? You're not so big and bad without King Steve and the rest of the nerd squad looking out for you. Speaking of which," He pulled her off the wall and walked her to her room, still holding her by her throat so that she was forced to walk backwards. "That stops today, too. You don't talk to them anymore. They're not your friends. You don't get to have friends."

"You can't do that," Max said with difficulty. He was starting to squeeze rather hard.

"Oh, yeah?" He said in a dangerous whisper. "You remember what happens when you don't listen to me, hmm? It wasn't that long ago; even someone as brain-dead as you should know what happens to people who piss me off. You had your time getting your way around here." He threw her into her room by her neck, causing her to fall on her back and hit her head on the floor. "Time's up."

He threw her backpack in after her and slammed the door so hard that the frame cracked. Max lay there on the floor, holding her head and sobbing.

Why didn't she just go to the arcade?

* * *

Joyce sat across from Hopper at her kitchen table, both of them chain-smoking and speaking in low tones to each other. Eleven and Will were sitting on the other side, eating old Christmas sugar cookies from a tin and listening to their parents' conversation nervously.

Joyce had gotten in touch with Hopper after Will voiced his concerns about the letters. coupled with news that only Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve had received invitations from the high school and no one else. That was when she learned that Hopper and Eleven had received a letter of their own.

After hearing from her, Hopper packed Eleven into his truck and took her straight to the Byers' place. Joyce was the only trustworthy adult in Hawkins who knew anything about Eleven. There was literally nowhere else they could go that was remotely safe.

"Whoever these people are, they know where El is." Hopper said, waving the open letter around. "This thing was on the porch of the cabin right in front of the door, for Christ's sake."

"So, if they know who we are and what we know, why are they waiting? Why the pretense of a summer school program?"

Hopper scrubbed his eyes, exasperated. "I don't know. All I know it that the cabin isn't safe anymore. Neither is the trailer. I don't know what to do."

"Do you think it's the government?" Will asked.

"This doesn't feel like them; this is something else," Hopper said. "If it were them, they'd have had a small army at my front door, not just a bunch of papers. As much as they try to be, they're not exactly subtle. Not to people like us who know how they operate."

"What else could it be?" Eleven asked.

Hopper shook his head and sighed smoke out of his nose. "I don't know. We're flyin' blind here. I got no answers and it's drivin' me nuts."

"Look, why don't you an Eleven stay here for a few days?" Joyce asked. "We've got a little time; a few weeks from now before we have to meet these people, whoever they are. Let's just figure out what we're going to do."

"Why would it be any safer here than at the cabin or the trailer? I'm not going to put you and your family in danger."

"We're already in danger, Hop," Joyce said. "Will and Jonathan both got those letters, and I'm expected to be a chaperone, just like you. Besides, safety in numbers. I've still got Lonnie's pistol and we've got the rifle in the shed, should it come to that."

"Jonathan can't shoot that thing," Hopper said dismissively.

"I can," Will said. "I've always been better at it that Jonathan. And I want to help Eleven. She's my friend."

"It's the weekend," Joyce continued. "The kids will be out of school. We should all get together and decide what to do."

"Mike, Max, Lucas, Dustin, and I are supposed to meet tomorrow at the scrapyard. It's the safest in town. It's private, hidden, and there's no electricity out there. It's safe."

"Nowhere is safe," Hopper said. "The cabin was supposed to be safe."

"I have to work tomorrow," Joyce said. "But we all need to talk about this. We all need to come to some sort of decision."

"I can meet everyone at the scrapyard and bring them back here," Will said. "We can stay here until you get home from work. Then we can figure it out."

Joyce nodded, and looked at Hopper for approval. Hopper took several breaths before replying.

"We stay tonight, we figure it out tomorrow." He leaned forward and took a sip of his beer. "I have to check in at the station and get some work done. I want to ask around the schools and first thing Monday, I'm going to the post office and see if I can find out where the letters were sent from. That's as far ahead as we can plan right now."

Joyce nodded. "Eleven can sleep in with me. And the couch pulls out, Hop."

He nodded wearily. "Thanks."

Joyce checked her watch. "Jonathan should be home from work soon. I'll order us some pizzas for dinner."

"I'm going to run back to the cabin, get some changes of clothes for me and the kid. I'll be back soon." Hopper stood and put on his hat. Eleven made to follow him, but he waved her down. "No, you stay here and eat some pizza. I won't be long."

As Hopper walk out the front door and Joyce picked up the phone to call the pizza place, she said to Will and Eleven, "Why don't you two go hang out in Will's room? Will, you can show Eleven your drawings. I want to make some phone calls."

Will nodded. "Come on, El."

Eleven followed Will to his room and they both sat on the floor at the foot of his bed. He pulled out a binder of drawings he had done.

"Mom makes me keep all these," He said. "She thinks I'm going to be a rich artist one day. I don't think she understands how art works all that well or how hard it is to actually get recognized. Besides, I just like drawing. I don't plan on making a job out of it."

"You're really good," Eleven said, flipping through the pages. "Mike showed me some of your drawings before, when I stayed at his house."

"It's totally crazy that you lived in his basement for a week," He said, laughing a little. "Were you scared?"

Eleven nodded. "I was more scared when I was alone. It wasn't as bad when Mike, Lucas, and Dustin were there, but I was still afraid." She turned another page, revealing a sketch of the demogorgon. She paused and took in it's misshapen form with a frown.

"Are you scared now? About the letters, I mean?" Will asked softly.

Eleven sighed and nodded again slowly, staring at the grey, petal-faced monster. "I'm always scared," She whispered.

Will followed her gaze and shivered. "Me too."

Eleven closed the book and handed it back to Will, who stowed it back under his bed. "Why don't we do a puzzle instead?" He asked.

Eleven nodded, relieved.

After a while, Jonathan came home, Hopper returned, and the pizza arrived. After a tense, but not necessarily unpleasant, dinner, Will covertly took the cordless into his room while the others were talking and called Mike, allowing Eleven to speak to Mike for the first time in months.

Mike was just as surprised and concerned to learn that someone had found out where Eleven had been hiding as everyone else, and insisted that she join Will and the others at the scrapyard the next day to make sure she was safe, though Will knew perfectly well he just wanted to see her. Will doubted Hopper would allow her to go, which is why, Eleven said, they wouldn't be telling him.

It grew late, and Eleven changed into a long shirt and sports shorts to sleep in. Joyce was generous and offered her the fluffy pillow and the lump-less side of the bed. Eleven's usual nightmares visited her as she slept, but Joyce was there to comfort her every time she woke up terrified, for which she was grateful.

* * *

The next morning after breakfast, Joyce and Jonathan went to work, and Hopper told Eleven to stay put at the Byers' while he was at the station, despite Will still planning to meet the others at the scrapyard. Whether or not he actually expected her to obey him was unclear, and he eyed her and Will suspiciously, but he left for work anyway.

After about an hour, Will called Mike to let him know that he and Eleven were on their way. Mike responded that he had been in touch with the others and they were also en route, but that Lucas was agitated about something and wouldn't say what.

Will's bike didn't have an elongated seat for Eleven to ride on, so they would be walking, though Will opted to bring his bike anyway, just in case. There was a second bike in the shed that Jonathan used to ride before he got his car, and Will thought Jonathan wouldn't mind if Will offered it to Eleven, provided she could learn how to ride it. Perhaps the party could teach her sometime, when all this was over and done with and they could breath a little better.

They decided to take the train tracks behind the house in the woods because it was more private and direct. As they made their way toward them, Eleven caught a glimpse of Castle Byers in the distance, and all at once, she was transported back to the Void. It was as if it was happening now, in front of her eyes, and all sound hushed in her ears. She was there again, finding Will in that dark, cold, wet place, kneeling down to take him by the hand, worrying about his frozen skin and pale blue lips, urging him to hold on. Then suddenly losing her grip and Will disappearing, and the terror of believing he was lost for good. Like Barbara.

She felt Will place his hand gently on her shoulder and jumped, looking around at him. She found herself back in the sunlight, feeling a warm breeze on her face and hearing birds chirping in the distance.

"Sorry," She said.

"No, don't be," He said. "It's okay. I get 'em, too."

Eleven was unsure how to feel knowing this. The visions haunting her mind always seemed like something unique to her; a thing only she ever experienced. The revelation that Will also suffered from demons he couldn't escape suddenly made her feel less alone, but at the same time, she worried for Will. If his visions were anything like hers, he was suffering quite a lot. She didn't like that idea very much. Will had been through enough.

Will patted her shoulder and let go. "We should get going. The others are waiting for us."

Eleven nodded, swallowed, and followed him down the tracks.

* * *

Will and Eleven arrived at the scrapyard to find Mike and Dustin waiting for them. Neither Lucas or Max were present yet.

Mike smiled as they approached and hugged Eleven hard. "I missed you," He said in an undertone.

"Missed you, too," She replied into his hair.

They parted and Dustin swooped in for a hug. "Dude, it's awesome to see you!" He said, patting her back and letting go. "Sorry I called you dude."

She smiled and looked around. "Where's Lucas?" She asked.

"I don't know," Mike said, squinting at the horizon in irritation. "He was supposed to be here, like, thirty minutes ago."

"Do you think he's okay?" Will asked.

"Wait, I see him," Dustin said, using his hand to shield his eyes. "I don't see Max, though."

"Maybe she decided not to come," Will said.

"For something this important? Nah, man, she should be here."

Lucas pedaled quickly to meet them and stopped his bike just short of them without dismounting.

"Something's wrong," He panted as soon as he stopped.

"What do you mean?" Dustin asked.

"Max was supposed to call me last night, but she never did. When I called her house, Billy answered and told me she didn't want to see me, or any of us, ever again. He said if I called again, he's break my neck."

"Yeah, but we know that guy's a dick. Max can handle herself; you saw what she did with that bat."

"You don't get it, something is really wrong, I know it," Lucas said. The atmosphere of distress surrounding him was completely out of character and rather dismaying.

"What do you mean? Wrong how?" Dustin asked.

Lucas took a deep breath and considered them grimly. "Look, Max swore me to secrecy, so you can't tell her I told you this, or she'll never forgive me. Swear you won't say anything to her or tell anyone else." He pointed at them with an intensely serious look on his face. "Swear."

Mike scoffed. "Dude, this is ridiculous, just-"

"This is important! I'm not joking around! Swear!"

"Alright, we swear, man, chill!" Mike said. "We all swear, right guys?" He looked at the others, who nodded.

He took a deep breath before he began. "Billy isn't just an asshole to Max; he literally beats her up."

"What?" Dustin said.

"Dude, I fight with Nancy all the time, that stuff's normal," Mike said.

"Erica and I push each around other all the time, too; that's not what this is. It's not normal brother/sister stuff. Billy kicks the crap out of her. I've seen bruises on her arms. That's why she went after him with the bat last year. It got him off her back for a while, but she told me that he's started up again. If she's not here, it's because of him."

"Wouldn't her parents know that it was happening?" Will said.

"No, they're oblivious. Billy only does it when they aren't around and he's careful not to hit her anywhere that's obvious. He's been doing it since they moved to Hawkins because he blames her for having to be here. She's scared of her stepdad, too, but not as much as Billy." The clear panic on Lucas's face drove the point home. "He really hurts her."

"Jesus Christ," Dustin said. "What do we do?"

"We should tell someone," Will said. "The Chief would know what to do-"

"I already told her to tell someone, but she won't."

"We have to help her," Eleven said quietly. She had been observing the interaction silently up to this point. They turned to look at her and saw a very determined glint in her eyes. She may not have understood the situation fully, but she understood well enough to know was Max was in danger. "We should go."

"Eleven's right," Lucas said. "I'm really worried about her."

"We don't have a lot of time," Will said. "My mom is taking a half day, she'll be back home soon, and Eleven wasn't supposed to leave our house."

"Then let's get going," Lucas said, turning his bike around before anyone could say another word. The others followed suit, with Eleven climbing back into her usual place behind Mike. Coasting down the hill, they made their way to Cherry Road.

* * *

Max sat on her bed with a picture of her and her dad in front of her, trying and failing to prevent the tears from falling. _Why couldn't Mom have let me stay with Dad? Why did she drag me out here? Why did she have to pick Neil? Neil and Billy were garbage from the beginning, both of them. All of them._

Max was near a breaking point. She'd have run, if she thought she could get far. If only their were some way to get back to California. She wished she could call her dad and tell him what was going on, but she knew he'd call her mom, and her mom would deny everything, and Billy would punish her. There was no way out.

Well, there was one way. Billy had been offered a basketball scholarship to a university in northern California. It was literally the only way Billy was going to be able to go to college, as his grades were woeful and Neil wasn't going to pay for it. Four months. She just had to wait four months, and he'd be gone.

Now that she couldn't see Lucas or her friends, it was all she had to hold on to.

Speak of the devil…

Max heard a tapping on her window. She knew immediately who it must have been, and she tried to ignore it, but she was also afraid Billy would hear it.

Hopping off her bed, she went to the window and found not only Lucas, who she was expecting, but the entire party standing there, including Eleven. She unlocked the window and opened it.

"You guys have to leave," Max said in a terse whisper.

"Are you okay?" Lucas asked, clearly noting her red eyes and tracks of tears on her face. "What did he do?"

She hopped down onto the little ledge and then to the ground. "I'm serious, Lucas, Billy's on the warpath. If he finds you guys here, he will kill you."

"Are those bruises on your neck?" Will asked, reaching for her collar. She slapped his hand away and pulled her hair around her face, obscuring her throat from view.

"Please," She said. "Please, I don't want him to hurt any of you. You have to go." Her voice wavered and tears trickled down her cheeks.

"Max, this is crazy," Lucas said, taking her by the shoulders. "You can't keep letting him do this to you. You have to tell someone."

"It won't help, I've told you!" She said. "All they're going to do is interview my parents and Billy, then decide nothing's wrong, and then Neil will hurt Billy, and Billy will hurt me. That's how it always happens."

"The Chief will listen, I promise you," Lucas said. "We're going to see him today. Tell him!"

"I can't!"

"Lucas…Sinclair…"

A lazy, menacing voice drifted their way from around the side of the house. Billy stepped into view and leaned on the frame with his arms folded.

" _Shit,_ " Max said under her breath. She began to shake violently.

The party turned to face Billy and closed ranks around Max instinctively, with Lucas at the forefront, staring Billy down.

"I believe I told you that if you ever spoke to Max again, I'd break you in half," Billy said as he slowly meandered toward them.

"Way to exaggerate, dickhead," Lucas said in a flat tone. "You can't stop me from seeing Max. You can threaten me all you like, I really don't care."

"Oh, you're going to care," Billy said. "See, if it was just these losers," Billy pointed at the others with his pinky. "I wouldn't mind so much. Losers will find each other, no matter where they are. But you," Billy said, pushing a finger into Lucas's chest. "I just really don't like the idea of her hanging out with you."

"What's that supposed to me?" Lucas said in a steely voice.

"You know what it means," Billy muttered dangerously, leaning down to look Lucas in the eye. "You know perfectly well what it means."

"It means you're a racist piece of shit!" Dustin yelled.

"Shut up, shit stain," Billy said without taking his eyes off of Lucas. "I'm only gonna tell you this one more time: stay away from Max. Or I will hurt you. I'll hurt both of you."

Lucas stood his ground and maintained eye contact with Billy. "No."

Billy stood back up to his full height and punched Lucas full in the face.

"Billy, stop!" She grabbed his arm, which earned her a back-hand across the mouth that sent her sprawling to the ground.

All of the boys rushed forward, but before they could reach him, Billy was hurled through the air and thrown against the house, held up off the ground with his feet dangling. He yelled in pain and surprise.

Eleven stepped forward, the tell-tale droplet of blood beginning to drip from her left nostril. She held him there against the wall and asked Max, who was bleeding from a split lip, "What should I do with him?"

Max thought. "Dislocated his hip but don't break any of the bones. Can you do that?"

Eleven nodded, and jerked her head. There was a muffled popping sound and Billy screamed.

Max walked up to Billy, who was struggling to break free of the invisible barrier.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Billy shouted at her.

"Meet my friend El, Billy," She said. She was shaking so hard that her hair was vibrating. She was still crying and sniffling, but her resolve was rock solid.

"She's a real special kid and she's _my friend_. If I asked her to, she could hurt you. If I asked her to, she could kill you."

Billy stared with anger and fear at Eleven, who was glowering savagely at him, her chin pointed downward but her eyes piercing him with a deadly sneer. Mike, Will, and Dustin had pulled Lucas to his feet and were gathered around him, his nose bleeding and his cheek puffy.

"Listen to me, Billy. You've got a choice right now. From now on, you don't look at me, you don't talk to me, you don't touch me. As far as you're concerned, I don't exist. You leave me alone. Leave all of us alone. For good. Forever."

"Or what?" Billy asked venomously, breathing hard from struggling.

"Or El breaks both of your legs and ends any chance you have of getting out of this shitty town. You can kiss that basketball scholarship goodbye."

The loathing and terror warred in Billy's eyes as they shifted from Eleven to Max and back again.

"Pick one."

Billy was silent for so long that she thought he may not answer at all. But eventually, in a menacingly quiet voice, "Get the fuck out of here."

Max held out her hand for Lucas, who took it firmly, and resolutely linked her fingers with his. She then nodded at Eleven, who released Billy. He hit the ground with a shrill yelp of pain.

"Fuck you, Billy," Max whispered as he lay at her feet. "Fuck you."

The party mounted their bikes, leaving Billy helpless on the ground. Max didn't bother to spare him a backwards glance.


	5. Making Contact

Once they had made it back to the scrapyard, Max stumbled off the back of Lucas's bike and fell to the ground on her knees. She had been bottling up her terror and rage since leaving Billy injured in their backyard, but now she felt like she might explode. Her chest was tight and her head began to throb painfully. The world around he began to spin and there was a rushing sound in her ears. She shut her eyes tight to block out the sudden awful stimuli, which made the pounding in her head worse. She clutched her chest with her right hand and her forehead with her left and struggled to breathe, rocking back and forth while still kneeling.

"Max!" Lucas exclaimed, throwing his bike to the side and taking her by the shoulders. He tried to look her in the face but her head was bowed, her eyes curtained by her hair. "What's wrong? Are you okay? Are you hurt? Talk to me!"

Max tried to speak, but couldn't form words. Even if she did, she wouldn't know what to tell him. She didn't know what was happening; she had never experienced this before. Could she be having a heart attack? It's seemed unlikely at her age, but what else could this be?

She was dimly aware of them all gathered around her; Mike, Dustin, and Lucas were talking loud and fast in panic, but their voices were strangely muffled by the whooshing noise in her ears.

"What do we do?"

"I don't know!"

"Is she hurt?"

"I don't know!"

"Is something broken?"

" _I don't know!_ "

"What do we do?"

"Max, say something!"

"Should we, like, try CPR or something?"

"No, we should take her to the hospital!"

"The nearest hospital is in Kerley!"

"That's twenty-six miles away!"

" _So what do we do?!_ "

"Guys, stop!" Will's voice cut through the noise sharply. "Back up, give her space, let her breathe! She's having a panic attack." He pulled them all back and set himself down in front of her, resting a reassuring hand on Max's shoulder. "Breathe, Max. Breathe. You're safe."

The others stood in a semi-circle around the two of them, exchanging silent, fearful glances with each other as Will knelt in front of Max and spoke a steady stream of comforting words to her, calmly and quietly telling her she was safe and to keep breathing.

It was helping. After a few moments, her breathing began to even out. The knot in her chest started to unwind and the spinning slowed. The pounding in her head subsided to a dull aching and the rushing noise stopped. She came to awareness enough to realize her face was soaked in tears, she was shaking, and that she was both strangely cold and sweaty. She swiped her light, long-sleeved flannel over-shirt across her face to little effect.

Opening her eyes, she saw Will's calm, earnest eyes peering into her own. "You're okay now, Max." He said consolingly. "You're okay."

"Yeah," She replied, sniffling. "I'm okay.

Will smiled and offered her a hand up, which she took shakily. Once on her feet, she went to Eleven and hugged her.

"Thank you," She said in a whisper.

Eleven was surprised by the sudden physical contact, but returned the hug awkwardly. Eleven had initially been mistrustful of Max, but at the Snow Ball, Lucas and Max had both grown tired of Mike's rudeness toward her and finally told him to back off. Once Eleven had realized Max had feelings for Lucas, not Mike, Eleven no longer felt hostile toward her, but she still wasn't sure how to feel about her.

Now, though, having seen what her home life was like, she felt significantly more empathetic toward the red-haired girl. No one should ever be treated like that.

Max released Eleven with a smile, which Eleven returned. Lucas was the next to get a hug from Max, and he clutched her to him tightly. Then they began inspecting each other's wounds; Lucas examining the bruising to her neck and her split lip while she touched his swollen cheek gingerly, frowning.

"Will, how'd you do that? "Dustin asked, awestruck. "You were like a freaking jedi, man, that was so cool."

"I get them," Will said reluctantly. "Panic attacks. Not a lot, but it happens. A psychologist from the lab taught me how to calm myself down, when they happen." He kicked at the dirt and avoided everyone's eye. "It's probably the only helpful thing they've ever done for me."

They were quiet for a moment, watching Max scrub her face clean of tears and stretch her aching neck, her face pinched in discomfort.

"We should get back," Will said. "Hopper will blow a gasket if he finds out Eleven left the house."

"Okay," Max said. "I'm okay now. You're right. We should go."

Nodding to each other, they began the trek back, two by two, along the tracks to the Byers'.

* * *

Upon returning, they found Jonathan's car in the driveway, as well as Steve Harrington's. Joyce and Hopper were still out.

As they walked in, they found Jonathan, Steve, and Nancy seated at the kitchen table, muttering to each other quietly, as though they expected to be overheard. They looked up as the party came into the room, becoming silent.

Nancy jumped up, smiling, and opened her arms to Eleven, and El embraced her.

"It's so good to see you again!" Nancy said.

"You, too," Eleven replied.

Jonathan stood and approached Will, narrowing his eyes. "Hopper's gonna be pissed if he finds out she went with you."

"Not if we don't tell him," Will said subversively.

Jonathan snorted and ruffled Will's hair. "I guess. We've all got secrets, don't we, bro?"

Will shrugged, smiling. "I guess."

Steve also stood to greet them, but stopped short when he saw the state that Lucas and Max were in.

"Whoa, whoa, hold up," He said, inspecting Lucas's face, then tugged at Max's collar, seeing the bruises. "What the hell happened to you two?"

"I… uh…" Max stammered.

"We fell," Lucas interjected quickly. "I crashed my bike into a tree like a total dweeb. We both landed weird. That's all."

"Weird is right," Steve said skeptically, still staring at the bruising around Max's neck until she swatted his hand away. "Never seen bruises from a fall look like fingerprints before."

"It's fine," Max said dismissively.

"Nah, it's not fine," Steve said, folding his arms. "It's Billy, isn't it? Is he messing with you guys again?"

"Billy Hargrove? That douchebag with the mullet?" Nancy said, scrunching up her face in disgust. She leaned toward Steve and said in an undertone, "I heard from Carrie Russell that he got that senior Anita Westwood pregnant, and that's why she dropped out of school two weeks before graduation. She and her parents packed up and left town in, like, two days."

"Yeah, that's not surprising. The guy is a grade-A asshole," Steve said. "He rough you guys up?"

"It's taken care of," Max said.

"No, bullshit, I'm gonna go talk to him," Steve said, snatching his keys from the table. Max grabbed his shirt as he passed.

"Steve," Max said, her expression pointedly repressive. " _It's taken care of _,__ " She said again through gritted teeth, nodding her head slightly in Eleven's direction. Eleven looked apologetic but unrepentant.

Steve's eyes narrowed and he frowned. "You're sure?"

"Yeah," Max said. "We don't have to worry about him anymore."

Steve's head rocked back, smiling playfully. "What, did you guys kill him or something? That's a little extreme, don't you think? Not that I blame you, but still…"

"No, we didn't kill him!" Max said sharply. "He'll just be… incapacitated for a while. Hopefully for just long enough."

"Long enough For what?" Steve asked.

"He's got a basketball scholarship back in California. It's a minor miracle, to be honest with you, but his first semester starts at the tail end of August. Four months, and he'll be out of our hair for good."

Steve shrugged and sighed. "If you say so." He made a mental note to pay Billy a visit later, just to make sure.

"Guys," Nancy said, looking out the window. "They're back."

Looking out, they could see Hopper's truck and Joyce's car pull into the driveway and park behind Steve's and Jonathan's vehicles. As they stepped out, they both lit up a cigarette before walking into the house.

It was just around lunchtime by this point, so Joyce and Jonathan busied themselves making sandwiches for everyone while everyone else settled at the table. They had to borrow chairs from other rooms to accommodate everyone.

"I paid a visit to your teacher, , today," Hopper said, gesturing at the younger teens. "He told me that neither the tests nor the acceptance letters came through the mail. It was all delivered by hand to the school by a woman."

"What woman?" Joyce asked.

"A representative, is what Mr. Clarke said; a Ms. Maritza Fernandez. She was also the one who came back to pick up the completed tests. They never once went through the post office, so we have no return address." Hopper reached into his pocket and pulled out a slightly crumpled card. "The only thing Mr. Clarke had was this business card with her name and the insignia of the institute on it. There's a phone number, but no address."

"Did you call the number?" Jonathan asked.

"No, not yet, I haven't had a chance," Hopper replied, pointing at their phone. "Hand me that, would ya?"

Will jumped up and took the phone off the wall and handed it to Hopper, who began dialing and motioned for them all to shut up. Most of them were busy chewing, anyway.

After a single ring, someone answered. A woman with a pleasant voice said brightly, " _Hello. You have reached the Artemis Institute of Advanced Sciences. My name is Alissa Templeton. How can I assist you?_ "

"Yeah, Alissa, this is Chief Jim Hopper from Hawkins."

" _Ah, Chief Hopper! Yes, we've been expecting your call. As a parent chaperone, I assume you have questions about our summer science program and I'll be happy to answer them for you._ "

"Oh, you assume correctly. I have lots of questions, like what the hell is all this?"

" _I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific, sir._ "

"How the hell did you find my cabin? What exactly is this so-called program of yours?" Hopper lowered his voice. "How do you know about Jane?"

"Who's Jane?" Steve said with a mouthful of sandwich.

"Shh!" Mike hissed at Steve, and Eleven pointed to herself. Steve stopped chewing and his brows knitted together. Eleven had told Mike and the others about her mother and true name long ago, and while the information may have filtered naturally to Nancy and Jonathan, it seemed no one had passed it on to Steve.

" _I'm sorry to inform you that I am unable to answer some of those questions," Alissa said. "But as to what the program is, it's exactly what it sounds like. We are looking for very special children who we can expose to new and exciting fields of science. Advances in technology, medical science, physics, and the power of the human mind_."

That last one sounded eerily familiar. "I don't understand."

" _The human brain is full of so much potential," Alissa continued cheerfully. "If we really pushed ourselves, their is no limit to what one could accomplish! For instance, advanced intelligence, heightened senses, and perhaps even something as extraordinary as channeling people through radio waves and the creation of inter-dimensional portals._ "

Hopper's blood ran cold. He looked up at Eleven and felt slightly panicked. He didn't know what his face showed, but it couldn't have been good, because Eleven's expression turned fearful.

"What are you talking about?"

" _We know of Eleven,_ " Alissa said, dropping the pretense suddenly and becoming serious and intense. " _We know what she has been through. We know what you and the other children have been through._ "

"How? How could you possibly know if you're not involved?"

" _The institute we run here is not affiliated with the laboratory in Hawkins. I assure you. They were toying with powers they didn't understand and paid the price for their arrogance. There are consequences when one attempts to play god._ "

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Hopper retorted.

Alissa ignored the question. " _I know we are asking for a lot of trust, but you must believe that we do not wish to harm you, only to educate you. You need to understand the truth. All of you, especially Eleven. She needs to knew why they created her, and that she can become so much more than what they expected her to be. She can be anything she wants to be. She may even learn to suppress her abilities and live a normal life, if that is her wish._ "

"A normal life?" Hopper repeated. "What do you mean, suppress her abilities?"

Eleven's face was undecipherable.

" _That will be explained in time by people better suited to the task. For now, we must reach an agreement._ "

"What agreement?"

" _We know much of the lab and it's downfall, but there are gaps in our information that can only be answered by you and the others present at the event. Everyone who received a letter from the Institute was in some way involved in the events that took place at lab, in both the creation of the gateway and the destruction of the lab itself. We need to know what you saw in order to prevent any other such occurrence. Some doors should never be opened._ "

Hopper couldn't help but agree, but he said, "I'm perfectly capable of giving you the information you need. There's no reason to involve anyone else."

" _That not the only concern. You must also have questions about how and why the door was opened in the first place. Why they were using children at all. You need to know what the experiments were meant to do and the true purpose behind them. You need to know why Hawkins is only the latest in a long line of experimental facilities to fail, and why the other labs are so desperate to succeed._ "

"Other labs? What are you talking about, other labs? What purpose? Give me some goddamn answers!" Hopper demanded. The others around the table looked at each other in shock.

"What other labs?" Mike mouthed to Eleven. "Do you know about other labs besides the Hawkins' one?"

Eleven shook her head fervently.

" _If you wish to know, you will meet our representative at the specified time."_ Alissa continued. _"All of you who received invitations must be there. If even one of you is absent, you will forfeit your chance._ "

"Our chance to what?" Hopper shouted into the receiver.

" _Change the world._ "

There was a click and a dial tone signifying the end of the conversation. Hopper attempted to redial the number, only to be greeted with a message stating that the number was no longer in service.

Hopper was silent for a very long time, scrubbing his beard and not looking at anyone.

"Hopper, what the hell did they say?"

"They know," Hopper said. "They know everything. We're screwed."


	6. A Decision, A Visit

Hopper spent a few moments laying out what he had been told by the woman on the phone as the others listened in a stunned silence. The half-eaten sandwiches lay forgotten on the table.

"It's a trap," Dustin said. "I mean, that's obvious, right?"

"So, what? We just don't go?" Max asked. "Wouldn't they come looking for us if we don't?"

"We have no way of knowing," Joyce said. "There's no way of knowing anything?"

Eleven stood up. "What if there was?" She turned to look at the TV, then back at Hopper. "I could do it." She reached for one of the pamphlets on the table with the emblem on it.

"You're sure?" Hopper asked. "It's not much to go on."

"I've done more with less," Eleven said sardonically. Hopper raised an eyebrow, but shrugged in agreement.

"If you're sure," Hopper reiterated.

"Lucas," Eleven said. "Can I borrow your bandanna?"

Lucas nodded, pulling his signature camouflage bandanna out of his back pocket and handing it over. As she moved toward the TV, the rest of the group rose from their seats to follow her with a loud scrapping of chairs. Mike went to the TV and switched it on, finding a channel that was all static as Eleven knelt down in front of it and fastened the bandanna around her eyes.

"Be careful," Hopper said. Eleven nodded without turning.

"What's going on?" Steve asked quietly. Max shrugged in confusion.

"Shh," Nancy said. "Just watch."

Eleven sat in darkness and focused on the sound of the static. All other sound faded from her ears. She felt heavy, and then light, and then nothing. She opened her eyes, and she was there. The Void.

She looked around in the blackness, hearing the water at her feet sloshing as she turned this way and that, looking and listening for some sign of life.

In the distance, faintly, she heard what she thought might be screaming. Her heart raced, but she stiffened her spine and followed the noise.

As she got closer, she could make out the shapes of four people, children she thought, and they weren't screaming, they were playing, chasing each other around a three neat rows of blueberry bushes. Just beyond them was a porch, standing alone and unattached to a house. On the steps sat another person, maybe twenty years old but perhaps not quite, with straight black hair and a reddish-tan complexion. She was dressed demurely, like a Sunday school teacher, and kept glancing up surreptitiously at the children who were playing in front of the steps before bending over the work in her hands.

She was using a wooden tool that Eleven had never seen before. It looked sort of like a spinning top; it had a round bit at the top with a long dowel rod threaded through a hole in the center. A tiny hook was screwed into the top of the dowel, on which was a length of thread, linking up to a bundle of fibers that wound around the girl's arm and into a basket by her side. Every so often, she would reach down, grab the thin wooden rod, and spin it, threading the fibers downward as she did so, so that they spun into very fine string.

It was fascinating to watch. Eleven found herself inching closer to see better, and looked at the bundle of fiber in the basket. It looked so soft and she wished she could reach out and touch it, but was afraid that doing so would make this place disappear and she wouldn't be able to find it again.

"It's angora," The older girl said suddenly, startling Eleven into taking a step back. "Rabbit fur. It's very soft and makes amazing sweaters. It's delicate to work with, though. If you spin it too thick, you'll run out too fast, but if you spin it too thin, it snaps at the slightest pressure. Finding the middle ground can be difficult."

Eleven stood there, looking at the girl with her heart thumping in her chest. "Can you see me?"

"No," The girl replied. "And I can barely hear you. It's like trying to hear a whisper coming from another room. But I can feel you."

"You can?" Eleven said in amazement.

The girl nodded, looking up to check on the children and then back down again. "It's sort of the heavy feeling you sense in the air when it's about to rain, only more acute. More focused. To be honest, I've been expecting a visit from you."

Shocked, Eleven replied, "Why? How? How do you know who I am?"

"Well, that would be spoiling things a bit, now , wouldn't it?"

This statement made little sense. "Who are you?" Eleven asked.

The girl smiled and spun the wooden tool. "A friend."

Eleven turned to watch the girls at play. "Who are they?"

"My sisters."

Eleven frowned and looked back at the girls. They all appeared to be the same age, around nine or ten, but one was black, one was Latina, and the other two were white with blonde hair.

"They don't look like you," Eleven said.

The girl chuckled. "Sisters in spirit," She clarified.

Eleven looked at the unanchored porch and the bushes, all starkly contrasted against the never-ending abyss of the Void and the mirror of water on the ground all around them.

"Where are we?" She asked.

"A school," The girl replied. When she had spun quite a long length of string, she pulled the tool up and unhooked the thread, winding it around the base of the rod. When it was significantly shorter, she rewrapped the string around the hook at the top and continued spinning.

"The institute?" Eleven asked.

The girl nodded.

"It's an actual school?"

"Of course. Did you think we were lying about that?"

Eleven didn't answer.

The girl set the tool in her lap and looked up in Eleven's general direction, but not at Eleven herself. It was clear she actually _could_ sense Eleven's presence but, as she said, was not capable of seeing her.

"We really don't mean you any harm," She said. "But there are things you must know. You have options, opportunities, choices. You all do. We just want to show you what they are. If you choose not to come, we'll leave you alone, and you'll never hear from us again, I promise. But at least give us a chance. That's all we're asking for."

She looked out at the girls playing carelessly in the open space wistfully. Eleven followed her gaze.

"What's your name?" Eleven asked.

The girl smiled. "Come find out."

All at once, the connection snapped. She felt herself being pushed away by a force outside herself, and the scene before her evaporated into a mist. Gasping, she found herself back in the Byers' home. She pulled the blindfold off of her face and saw that the other's were standing around her. Mike was kneeling next to her with a hand on her shoulder.

"What happened?" He asked. "Did you see something?"

"We heard voices on the TV," Dustin said. "It's sounded like kids."

"It was," Eleven said, using Mike's shoulder to stand. "There were children there."

"Test subjects?" Hopper asked.

Eleven shook her head. "No. They were outside in regular clothes, playing like normal children." Eleven thought back to her vision. "There was an older girl, too. She knew I was there somehow. She spoke to me."

"What did she say?" Joyce asked.

"She said it was safe. That the school was real. And that if we chose not to go, that would be the end of it. They would leave us alone. They just want to talk. That's all."

"Did you get a sense that she might be lying?" Jonathan asked.

Eleven shrugged. "I don't really know how to tell if someone is lying. Besides, I've never actually been able to talk to the people I see in the Void, besides Will, but he was reaching out."

"Do you think it was real, what you saw?" Hopper asked.

"It has to be," Eleven said. "The visions aren't like dreams or nightmares. When I go to the darkness, it takes me to real places, to real people. If I saw it in the Void, it exists."

"But the girl you saw _could_ have been lying, right?" Lucas asked.

Eleven shrugged her shoulders and sighed. "Maybe."

"What do you think, kid?" Hopper asked gently. "Do you think she was lying?"

Eleven reflected, thinking about how happy the younger girls seemed. About the wooden tool and the rabbit fur, about the older girl's protective, watchful gaze over the young ones. How could that have been staged? How could they even know she'd be looking? The older girl had said she'd been waiting for Eleven to visit her, but what did that even mean? How could she know what Eleven could do? Who __were__ these people?

"I think she was telling the truth," Eleven said finally. "I think it's real. And if it is, I want to know for myself." She took a deep breath. "I want to go."

There was a short, uneasy silence.

"Me too," Will said. Mike and Dustin nodded.

"If they're going, I have to go," Steve said, pointing at Mike and Dustin. "God knows what kind of trouble they'd get into if I wasn't there."

Lucas sighed. "I guess I'm in, too."

One by one, they all assented. Joyce agreed to be a chaperone, as did Hopper, though they both seemed reluctant to do so. The only person who hadn't made a decision was Max.

"Max, the lady said if we don't all come, then none of us can. Are you in or out?" Dustin asked.

Max's cheeks turned red. "I… can't go."

"What? Why?" Lucas asked.

"I… lost my letter. I can't send in the permission slip and I can't exactly ask for another one, so… I can't go."

Will shrugged. "That's okay, use mine."

Max's head rocked back. "What?"

"Well, my mom is one of the parent chaperones, right, so obviously she gives permission. That means I don't need mine. You can have it."

"Really?" Max said, her face brightening.

"Yeah, of course. No big deal." He reached into his backpack and handed her the permission slip from his letter.

"Doesn't it have your name on it?" Max asked, examining the paper.

"Nope," He said. "It's just a standard slip with a line for the parent's to sign and a place to pencil in your name."

Max smiled. "Thanks, Will!"

"So, we're really doing this thing?" Hopper asked, looking around the room.

They all looked at each other questioningly, everyone seeming to silently agree.

"Okay," Hopper said, staring at his own copy of the letter clutched in his fist. "Okay."

* * *

Steve drove slowly down Old Cherry Street, keeping an eye out for Billy's car. After the decision had been made at the Byers' and everyone had gone their separate ways, he had suggested to Lucas that he might want to take Max to the arcade for a while, and Lucas nodded knowingly.

Halfway up the street, there it was, that stupid, tacky Camaro, parked on the road in front of a small, white, cottage style house with a closed-in front porch. The car sat catty-cornered so that half of it was in the yard and the other half was out in the street. So fucking ostentatious. It practically screamed _I'll have seven kids by the time I'm thirty but I'll only claim one of them for tax purposes and ignore the rest until I need money._

Steve parked on the road in front of the house, stepped out, and walked up to the front door. At his knock, a red-haired woman answered.

"Hi, can I help you?" She said brightly.

"Yeah, hi, uh, are you Mrs. Hargrove?"

"I am, what can I do for you?"

Steve screwed on his most charming smile, the one he used when he was about to tell a lie that tasted really bad in the mouth. "I'm Steve Harrington, I'm a friend of Billy's from school. I heard he got hurt and I just came to check up on him."

"Oh, that is so sweet. Please, come on in," She opened the door wide so that Steve could come inside.

"Do you know what happened?" Steve asked as Mrs. Hargrove led him through the living room. "All I heard was he got banged up pretty good."

"He says he fell off the roof, of all things," She replied, shaking her head. "Dislocated his hip, but it looks a whole lot worse than it is. The doctor said he should be back on his feet in about six weeks. The dislocation was the cleanest the doctor had ever seen. There was no tearing of the muscle or ligaments, which is almost unheard of in this kind of injury. It could have been a lot worse." Mrs. Hargrove's voice dropped to a pitying whisper. "It was terrible. I came home this afternoon to find him in the backyard, screaming and swearing. That boy gets into all kinds of trouble, I tell you. I don't even know what he was _ _doing__ on the roof."

Steve's smile became wooden and he laughed nervously. "Yeah, that guy's a real meathead."

Ms. Hargrove chuckled softly and pointed at the first door on the left in the hallway. "Through there."

"Thanks, Mrs. H," Steve said as Mrs. Hargrove walked off to the dining table where a book lay open. Steve waited until she was seated and reading before he did a short double-rap on Billy's door.

"Go away Susan," An irritated voice shot through the plywood. Steve rolled his eyes and opened the door, stepping in.

There Billy lay on his bed, wearing nothing but a pair of gym shorts, with his left leg propped up on several pillows. Steve could see deep black bruising on the skin just above and below the fabric on his left side. _Christ, Eleven really did a number on him._ Although, considering she could snap his neck with a flick of an eyebrow, Steve thought Billy got off easy.

Billy was less than pleased to see him. "What the fuck are you doing here, Harrington?" He demanded.

"I'm just checking on you, man," Steve said truthfully. "I heard you got hurt because you were doing something stupid and I had to see for myself."

"Yeah, heard from who? Max? You know, it's getting pretty pervy how much time you spend around her."

"Hey, she's friends with the Byers kid, I'm kinda-sorta friends with the other Byers kid, so our paths cross every so often, what do you want?" Steve began picking up various items on Billy's dresser and shelves, inspecting each one with a vague air of disdain. "I did notice the busted lip she had, though. And the shiner the Sinclair kid's got. Any idea how that happened?"

"What happens to my bitch of a step-sister and her coon ass boyfriend is none of your business."

"Well, I'm making it my business," Steve said, returning a model 1968 Pontiac Firebird back to its place on a shelf and walking toward Billy slowly. "You've got this bad habit of knocking people around for no good reason, and I'm thinking that's gotta stop."

"You're just as big a sack of crap as every other person in this shit town, Harrington. What makes you think I give a shit about what you think?" Billy spat. "Besides, what are you gonna do about it?"

"If you lay off, I won't have to do anything. But, if you continue to insist on being an raging dickhole, I've got a few things I can think of."

"You know, I remember kicking your ass pretty thoroughly last November and I'm perfectly capable of doing it right now, so back off, man," Billy huffed.

"Are you?" Steve asked, slapping lightly at the bruise on Billy's hip. Billy jumped and swallowed a yelp of pain, glaring at Steve venomously. "Look, dude, I'm not here to hassle you, I'm just here to make a deal."

"What deal?"

"Leave Max and the rest of the nerd squad alone. That's literally it."

Billy snorted. "What exactly do I get out of that?"

"You get to go to that fancy-pants college I heard about."

"How could you possibly prevent that from happening?"

"Me?" Steve looked at Billy lying prone on his bed with innocence. "I can't. Your dad probably could, though."

Billy's face went from irritated to infuriated in half a heartbeat. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Well, there's a few things I think you're dad would like to know about his son. Like the fact that when he's supposed to be in third period history, he's actually snorting coke with his other loser toadies behind the gym. The fact that he may have gotten at least one, possibly two girls pregnant in the six months he's been here. That he beats the shit out of his sister and other kids half his size because he's an absolute piece of shit."

"You watch your mouth, Harrington," Billy said furiously, glancing at the closed door. "You say one word to my dad-"

"What? You'll what?" Steve said, bending over Billy and staring him down. "Is what you're gonna do to me worse that what your dad is gonna do to you?"

Billy was breathing very hard, his fists clenching and unclenching, staring into Steve's eyes with nothing short of hatred.

"What makes you think you're better than me, hmm? _King_ Steve?" Billy sneered. "You know, I heard you had a reputation before I got here. I heard you were banging bitches and getting drunk off your tits at parties left and right. So when did you get all high and mighty? Huh? When you got with that skank Nancy? Is that when you suddenly started thinking you were hot shit, or have you just always had a stick up your ass?"

"I don't think I'm better than you, Billy," Steve said, shrugging. "But I do know that I don't beat up little girls because I'm sick of my life and I don't think there's a 'right' skin color and hate anyone who doesn't have it." Steve got right in Billy's face, inches away, and dropped his voice to a sinister whisper. "And if I fuck up, I cop to it, and I clean up my goddamn mess." Steve stood up straight and looked down his nose at Billy. "That's the difference between you and me, Bill. I learn. You don't."

Billy was jittering in anger. "You done?"

"Yup," Steve said with a satisfied nod. "Max says you'll be gone in four months. Trust me, I don't want you here __now__ , but if I have to wait a few months for this town to stop reeking of douche cologne and cheap hair spray, that's a price I'll have to pay. But you gotta hold up your end of the deal. Can you tone down the asshole just a little bit? Just until the end of summer? Because I want you to leave just as much as you want to go. Everyone does."

Billy looked away toward the window and didn't answer.

"Well?" Steve pressed him.

Billy's jaw worked. "No promises."

"Good enough, I guess," Steve said, sighing and shoving his hands into his jacket pockets. "But I'm telling you right now, dick, if I hear even a whisper that you've messed with Max or any of those other dweebs, I will make it my life's mission to hound you out of this town and I will take immense satisfaction from it." Steve leaned in again slightly and lowered his voice. "And Max may be too scared to tell the Chief what's been going on, but I'm not, and assault on a kid gets you an easy ten years. Not in juvie, either. You're eighteen, buddy, which means you go straight to big boy jail. So you just keep that in mind."

Billy didn't respond or react.

Steve shook his head and turned to leave. Before closing the door after himself, he muttered in a voice just loud enough for Billy to hear, "You really are a piece of shit, man."

Billy lay back on his pillows and stared at the ceiling, lighting a cigarette and listening to Steve bid farewell to his stepmother distantly. "'An easy ten years,' huh?" He said quietly to himself. "That would have been good to know."

He then tensed at the growing rumble of his father's truck as it traveled up the street and pulled into the driveway.


End file.
